Swissair Flight 111 (SR-111, SWR-111) was a Swissair McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on a scheduled airline flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States to Cointrin International Airport in Geneva, Switzerland. This flight was also a codeshare flight with Delta Air Lines. September 2 is the 245th day of the year (246th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean [1]. // Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages. ... A forest fire Fire is a rapid oxidation process that creates light, heat, and smoke, and varies in intensity. ... St. ... The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is a three-engined medium to long-range widebody airliner, with two engines mounted on underwing pylons and a third engine at the base of the vertical stabilizer. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is a three-engined medium to long-range widebody airliner, with two engines mounted on underwing pylons and a third engine at the base of the vertical stabilizer. ... John F. Kennedy International Airport (IATA: JFK, ICAO: KJFK), originally known as Idlewild Airport, is an international airport located in Jamaica, Queens, in southeastern New York City on the edge of Jamaica Bay. ... Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1676 Government  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area... Geneva Cointrin International Airport is an airport in Geneva, Switzerland with the IATA Airport Code GVA. It is located 5 km from the city centre and has direct connections to expressways and railways ( SBB-CFF-FFS ). The airport is a hub for Swiss International Airlines. ... Hunters a cool hobo For other uses, see Geneva (disambiguation). ... Code sharing is a business term used in the airline industry for a procedure whereby one airline operates a service using its own flight number, e. ... Delta Air Lines, Inc. ...

On September 2, 1998 the aircraft used for the flight, registered HB-IWF, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Halifax International Airport at the entrance to St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia. The crash site was 8 km from shore, roughly equidistant between the tiny fishing and tourist communities of Peggys Cove and Bayswater. All 229 people on board were killed.^[1] September 2 is the 245th day of the year (246th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean [1]. // Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages. ... The airport terminal soon after construction. ... St. ... Motto: Munit Haec et Altera Vincit (Latin: One defends and the other conquers) Official languages English, French (Canadian Gaelic) [] Capital Halifax Largest city Halifax Regional Municipality Lieutenant-Governor Mayann E. Francis Premier Rodney MacDonald (PC) Parliamentary representation  - House seats  - Senate seats 11 10 Area Total  - Land  - Water  (% of total)  Ranked... km redirects here. ... Peggys Cove Landscape Peggys Cove (2001 population: approx. ...

The resulting investigation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) took over four years and cost US$39 million (CAD$57 million).^[2] Their main conclusion was that flammable material used in the aircraft's structure allowed a fire to spread beyond the control of the crew, resulting in the loss of control and crash of the aircraft.^[3] The Transportation Safety Board (Bureau de la sécurité des transports du Canada) is the Canadian agency responsible for maintaining transportation safety in Canada. ... ISO 4217 Code USD User(s) the United States, the British Indian Ocean Territory[1], the British Virgin Islands, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Panama, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the insular areas of the United States Inflation 2. ... ISO 4217 Code CAD User(s) Canada Inflation 2. ...

History

The aircraft and its crew

The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, serial number 48448, was manufactured in 1991 and Swissair was the only operator. The airframe had a total of 36,041 hours. The three engines were Pratt & Whitney 4462s. The cabin was configured with 241 seats (12 first-, 49 business-, and 180 economy-class). First- and business-class seats were equipped with an in-flight entertainment system.^[4] DC-10, retired from American Airlines fleet at gate McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturer, producing a number of famous commercial and military aircraft. ... The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is a three-engined medium to long-range widebody airliner, with two engines mounted on underwing pylons and a third engine at the base of the vertical stabilizer. ... Pratt & Whitney is an American aircraft engine manufacturer whose products are widely used in both civil and military aircraft. ... The Pratt & Whitney PW4000 is a family of high-bypass turbofan aircraft engines with certified thrust ranging from 52,000 to 99,040 lbf (230 to 441 kN). ...

The standard crew of MD-11 is a flight crew of a captain and a first officer, and a cabin crew of a maître de cabine (M/C) and 11 flight attendants. All personnel were qualified, certified and trained in accordance with Swiss regulations, under the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA).^[5] The Joint Aviation Authorities, or JAA, is the predominant regulatory body for aviation in Europe. ...

The flight

Flight profile. Click to expand.

Flight SR-111 departed JFK at 20:18 (EDT) with 215 passengers, 2 pilots and 12 flight attendants en route to Geneva. At 22:10 Atlantic Time, cruising at FL330, or 33,000 feet (about 10,060 m), the flight crew smelled an odour in the cockpit and determined it to be smoke in the air conditioning system. Four minutes later, the smoke was visible and the pilots began considering a diversion to a nearby airport for the purpose of a quick landing. At 22:14 AT the flight crew made a "pan-pan" radio call, indicating that an emergency exists but there is no immediate danger to the aircraft, and requested a diversion to Boston's Logan International Airport (300 nautical miles away), but was instead directed to the closer Halifax International Airport in Enfield, Nova Scotia, 66 nm (104 km) away. The crew then put on their oxygen masks and began descending. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1500x1017, 377 KB)Flight profile from TSB website. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1500x1017, 377 KB)Flight profile from TSB website. ... Eastern Daylight Time or EDT is equal to: In North America, Eastern Standard Time + 1, or UTC − 4 hours. ... Hunters a cool hobo For other uses, see Geneva (disambiguation). ... AST is UTC-4 The Atlantic Standard Time Zone (AST) is a geographic region that keeps time by subtracting four hours from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), resulting in UTC-4. ... In aviation, a flight level is the nominal altitude of an aircraft referenced to a standard pressure datum, as opposed to the real altitude above mean sea level. ... Pan Pan is a lost small Hindu Kingdom believed to have existed around 3rd-5th Century CE., somewhere in Kelantan or Terengganu, Malaysia. ... Nickname: City on the Hill, Beantown, Athens of America, The Hub (of the Universe)1 Location in Massachusetts, USA Counties Suffolk County  - Mayor Thomas M. Menino (D) Area    - City  89. ... Logan International Airport with aircraft taking off over harbor Bostons Logan International Airport from the airside lounge of Terminal E, illustrating how the airport is largely surrounded by water. ... The airport terminal soon after construction. ... Enfield, pop. ...

At 22:19 AT the plane was 30 nautical miles away from Halifax airport, but required more time to descend from its current altitude of 21,000 feet. At 22:20 AT the crew informed ATC that it needed to dump fuel, and was subsequently diverted away from the airport. Dumping the fuel caused the power of the recirculating fans to shut off, causing the fire to spread back into the cockpit. At 22:24 AT, the crew declared an emergency. Aircraft systems, such as lighting, flight instruments, and the autopilot began to fail and as a result the crew slowly lost any means of successfully flying the aircraft. According to readings from seismographic recorders in Halifax and Moncton, the aircraft struck the ocean at 22:31 AT.^[6] The crash location was approximately 44°24.55′N 63°58.4′W, with 500 metres' uncertainty.^[7] A nautical mile or sea mile is a unit of length. ... Air Traffic Control Towers (ATCTs) at Amsterdams Schiphol Airport (Netherlands) Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. ... Seismometer (in Greek seismos = earthquake and metero = measure) are used by seismologists to measure and record the size and force of seismic waves. ... Motto: Template:Unhide = E Mari Merces (Wealth from the Sea) Logo: Location City Information Established: April 1, 1996 Area: (former city) 79. ... Moncton (46°6′ N 64°46′ W) is the second largest city in the Canadian province of New Brunswick and is at the heart of the fastest growing urban area in the province. ...

Recovery and investigation

The aircraft broke apart on impact with the water, and most of the debris sank to the ocean floor (a depth of 55 m or 180 ft). Some debris was found floating in the crash area, and over the following weeks debris washed up on the nearby shorelines.^[8]

The initial focus of the recovery was on finding and identifying human remains, and finding the flight recorders, but this proved difficult as the force of impact (approximately 350 g), and the environmental conditions, only allowed recovery along with wreckage.^[9] Only one of the victims was visually identifiable. 147 were identified by fingerprint, dental records, and X-ray comparisons. The remaining 81 were identified through DNA tests.^[10] In aircraft, the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) are used to record aircraft and pilot behavior in order to analyze accidents, and are usually called black boxes by the news media. ... The term g force or gee force refers to the symbol g, the force of acceleration due to gravity at the earths surface. ...

The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) were found by the submarine HMCS Okanagan using sonar to detect the underwater locator beacon signals, and quickly retrieved by Navy divers (the FDR on September 6 and the CVR on September 11, 1998). However, both had stopped recording at approximately 10,000 ft, six minutes before impact. In aircraft, the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) are used to record aircraft and pilot behavior in order to analyze accidents, and are usually called black boxes by the news media. ... An example of a Flight Data Recorder The flight data recorder (FDR) is a flight recorder used to record specific aircraft performance parameters. ... HMCS Okanagan (S74) was an Oberon class submarine in the Royal Canadian Navy, later Canadian Forces. ... September 6 is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years). ... September 11 is the 254th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (255th in leap years). ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean [1]. // Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages. ...

Canadian Coast Guard Ship Henry Hudson searches for Swissair Flight 111 debris

On October 2, 1998 the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) initiated a heavy lift operation to retrieve the major portion of the wreckage from the deep-water before the expected winter storms began. By October 21, 27% of the wreckage was recovered.^[11] Image File history File links CCGV_Hudson03. ... Image File history File links CCGV_Hudson03. ... Canadian Coast Guard Ship Hudson The Canadian Coast Guard Ship Hudson is an Offshore Research & Survey vessel in the Canadian Coast Guard. ... October 2 is the 275th day (276th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 90 days remaining. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean [1]. // Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages. ... The Transportation Safety Board (Bureau de la sécurité des transports du Canada) is the Canadian agency responsible for maintaining transportation safety in Canada. ...

At this point in the investigation, the cause of the crash was generally believed to be due to faulty wiring in the cockpit, after the entertainment system in the plane started to overheat. Certain groups issued Aviation Safety Recommendations. The TSB released its preliminary report August 30, 2000, but the final report was not completed until 2003.^[12] August 30 is the 242nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (243rd in leap years), with 123 days remaining. ... 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The final phase of wreckage recovery by dredging ended in December 1999 with 98% of the aircraft retrieved: approximately 126,554 kg (279,000 lb) of aircraft debris and 18,144 kg (40,000 lb) of cargo.^[8] Dredging is the process by which either new waterways are created or existing waterways are deepened. ...

Examination

Cargo door and other debris recovered

An estimated 2 million pieces of debris were recovered and brought ashore for inspection at a secure handling facility in a marine industrial park at Sheet Harbour where small material was hand inspected by teams of RCMP officers looking for human remains, personal effects and valuables from the aircraft's cargo hold. The material was then transported to a custom-built temporary structure on a discontinued runway at CFB Shearwater where it was assembled and inspected by over 350 investigators from multiple organizations such as TSB, NTSB, FAA, AAIB, Boeing, and Pratt & Whitney. ^[13][14] Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (3861x2498, 1678 KB) Debris recovered from Swissair 111 crash. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (3861x2498, 1678 KB) Debris recovered from Swissair 111 crash. ... On Marine Drive Sheet Harbour Location () , is a small community with the eastern shore of the Halifax Regional Municipality Nova Scotia in the Musquodoboit/Sheet Harbour region of the Marine Drive on Nova Scotia Route 7 . ... Canadian Forces Base Shearwater (CFB Shearwater) is a Canadian Forces base located in Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia on the eastern shore of Halifax harbour. ... The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is a U.S. government organization responsible for investigation of accidents involving aviation, highway, marine, pipelines and railroads in the United States. ... FAA may refer to: Federal Aviation Administration in the United States Fleet Air Arm in the UK Royal Navy Fuerza Aérea Argentina in Argentina This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The Air Accidents Investigation Branch investigates air accidents in the United Kingdom. ... Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), based in Renton Washington, is a unit of The Boeing Company, consisting of the Seattle-based former Boeing Airplane Company (the civil airliner division), as well as the Long Beach-based Douglas Aircraft division of the former McDonnell Douglas Corporation. ... Pratt & Whitney is an American aircraft engine manufacturer whose products are widely used in both civil and military aircraft. ...

As each piece of wreckage was brought in, it was carefully cleaned with freshwater, sorted, and weighed. The item was then placed in a specific area of the temporary structure at CFB Shearwater, based on a grid system representing the various sections of the plane. All items not considered significant to the crash were stored with similar items in large boxes. When a box was full, it was then weighed and moved to another hangar for long-term storage. If deemed significant to the investigation, the item was documented, photographed, and kept in the active examination hangar.^[15] Particular attention was paid to any item showing heat damage, burns, or other unusual marks.

Cockpit

The front 10m (33 feet) of the aircraft, from the front of the cockpit to near the front of the first-class passenger cabin, was reconstructed. Information gained by this allowed investigators to determine the severity and limits of the fire damage, its possible origins and progression.^[16]

CVR and FDR

The cockpit voice recorder is a 1/4 inch recording tape, operating on a 30 minutes loop. It therefore only recorded for the last half hour of the flight, from 8:58:15.8 pm EDT until 9:25:41.^[17][18] It also operated off the aircraft power, and stopped recording when the aircraft lost electrical power at 9:25 pm EDT (10:25 local time).^[17] In aircraft, the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) are used to record aircraft and pilot behavior in order to analyze accidents, and are usually called black boxes by the news media. ...

TSB Findings

The investigation identified eleven causes and contributing factors of the crash in their final report. The first and most important was:

Aircraft certification standards for material flammability were inadequate in that they allowed the use of materials that could be ignited and sustain or propagate fire. Consequently, flammable material propagated a fire that started above the ceiling on the right side of the cockpit near the cockpit rear wall. The fire spread and intensified rapidly to the extent that it degraded aircraft systems and the cockpit environment, and ultimately led to the loss of control of the aircraft.^[19]

Arcing from wiring of the in-flight entertainment network did not trip the circuit breakers but ignited flammable covering on insulation blankets and quickly spread across other flammable materials. The crew did not recognize that a fire had started and were not warned by instruments. Once they became aware of the fire, the uncertainty of the problem made it difficult to address. The rapid spread of the fire led to the failure of key display systems, and the crew's ability to control the aircraft was soon overcome. Because he had no light by which to see his controls after the displays failed, the pilot was forced to steer the plane blindly; as a result, the plane swerved off course and headed back out into the Atlantic. Recovered fragments of the plane show that the heat inside the cockpit became so great that the ceiling started to melt. A 2 pole MCB A circuit breaker is an automatically-operated electrical switch designed to protect an electrical circuit from damage caused by overload or short circuit. ...

The recovered standby attitude indicator and airspeed indicator showed that the aircraft struck the water at 300 knots in a 20 degrees nose down and 110 degree bank turn, or almost upside down ^[20]. Upon impact, the nose of the plane slowed down considerably: in less than a second, the tail of the plane, still moving at its original velocity, would have reached the nose, crushing the plane in between and killing all aboard almost instantly. Attitude indicator (with integrated localizer and glideslope indicators) Drawing An attitude indicator (AI) or artificial horizon is an instrument used in an aircraft to inform the pilot of the orientation of the airplane relative to the ground. ... Airspeed Indicator The airspeed indicator is an instrument used in an aircraft to display the crafts airspeed, typically in knots, to the pilot. ... A knot is a unit of speed, abbreviated kt or kn. ...

Reconstructed cockpit during investigation

The TSB concluded that even if they had been aware of the nature of the problem, the rate of spread of the fire would have precluded a safe landing at Halifax even if an approach had begun as soon as the "pan-pan" was declared. Image File history File links Swissair_111_reconstructed_cockpit. ... Image File history File links Swissair_111_reconstructed_cockpit. ... Pan Pan is a lost small Hindu Kingdom believed to have existed around 3rd-5th Century CE., somewhere in Kelantan or Terengganu, Malaysia. ...

TSB Recommendations

The TSB made nine recommendations relating to changes in aircraft materials, electrical systems, and flight data capture. (Both flight recorders failed, along with main power, six minutes before impact.) General recommendations were also made regarding improvements in checklists and in fire-detection and fire-fighting equipment.

The lack of flight recorder data for the last six minutes of the flight added significant complexity to the investigation and was a major factor in its duration. The Transportation Safety Board team had to reconstruct the last six minutes of flight entirely from the physical evidence. The plane was broken into millions of small pieces by the impact, making this process time-consuming and tedious. The investigation became the longest (five years) and most expensive (57 million CAD) transport accident investigation in Canadian history.

Legacy

Bayswater, Nova Scotia memorial.

Two memorials to the victims have been established by the government of Nova Scotia. One is located east of the crash site at The Whalesback, a promontory 1 km north of Peggys Cove. The second memorial is a more private but much larger commemoration located west of the crash site near Bayswater Beach Provincial Park on the Aspotogan Peninsula. Here, the unidentified remains of the victims are interred. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2048x1536, 1089 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Swissair Flight 111 Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2048x1536, 1089 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Swissair Flight 111 Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used... The bay at San Sebastián, Spain A headland is an area of land adjacent to water on three sides. ... Peggys Cove Landscape Peggys Cove (2001 population: approx. ... Sunset over the Apostogan Peninsula. ...

In September 1999 Swissair and Boeing offered the families of the passengers full compensatory damages. This was rejected in favor of a $19.8 billion suit against Swissair and DuPont, the supplier of Mylar insulation sheathing. The claim was rejected in a US federal court in February 2002.^[21] To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA, TYO: 7661 ) is an aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. ... This article is about the DuPont company. ... Mylar is a trade name of DuPont Teijin Films of Hopewell, VA, United States, for biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) polyester film used for its high tensile strength, chemical and dimensional stability, transparency, and electrical insulation. ...

A number of notable individuals died in this accident, including Joseph LaMotta, son of former boxing world champion Jake LaMotta, Jonathan Mann, former head of the WHO's AIDS program, and Mr. and Mrs. Sleiman Aboutaam, Beirut art collectors.^{[22] [23]} A number of works of art, including a piece by Pablo Picasso, were lost in the crash. Joseph LaMotta (circa 1949 - September 2, 1998) was the 49-year-old son of former middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta and a well-known chef. ... Professional boxing bout featuring Ricardo Domínguez (left) versus Rafael Ortíz Boxing, also called pugilism (from Latin), prizefighting (when referring to professional boxing) or the sweet science[1] is a sport and martial art in which two participants of similar weight fight each other with their fists in a... Giacobbe La Motta (born July 10, 1921), better known as Jake LaMotta, nicknamed The Bronx Bull and The Raging Bull, is a former boxer who was world middleweight champion and whose life has been as controversial outside the ring as it was inside it. ... Former head of the World Health Organizations AIDS program. ... Who can refer to: WHO, World Health Organization The Who, a British rock band The Guess Who, a Canadian rock band who (pronoun), an English language interrogative pronoun. ... This article is about the syndrome. ... Pablo Ruiz Picasso (October 25, 1881 – April 8, 1973) was a Spanish painter and sculptor. ...

After the crash, the flight route designator for Swissair's New York-Geneva route was changed to Flight 139.

Since the crash there have been many television documentaries on Flight 111, including episodes of disaster shows like History Channel's Disasters of the Century and National Geographic's Air Crash Investigation as well as PBS's NOVA. The History Channel is a cable television channel, dedicated to the presentation of historical events and persons, often with frequent observations and explanations by noted historians as well as reenactors and witnesses to events, if possible. ... Disasters of the Century is a television series that airs on The History Channel (History Television). ... The National Geographic Society was founded in the USA on January 27, 1888, by 33 men interested in organizing a society for the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge. ... Air Crash Investigation is a science television program on National Geographic Channel. ... The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is a non-profit public broadcasting television service with 354 member TV stations in the United States, with some member stations available by cable in Canada. ... Nova is a popular science television series from the USA produced by WGBH and can be seen on PBS and in more than 100 countries. ...

Notes

August 5 is the 217th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (218th in leap years), with 148 days remaining. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... November 27 is the 331st day (332nd on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ...

References

• Transportation Safety Board (2003), "In-Flight Fire Leading To Collision With Water", Aviation Investigation Report A98H0003
• Butler, John Marshall (2001). Forensic DNA Typing: biology & technology behind STR markers. Academic Press, San Diego. ISBN 0-12-147951-X. 
• Kimber, Stephen (1999). Flight 111:The Tragedy of the Swissair Crash. Seal Books, Toronto. ISBN 0-7704-2840-1. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Swissair Flight 111 memorials

• PlaneCrashInfo.Com - Swissair Flight 111 Entry
• Swissair111.org Memorial
• PBS NOVA: Crash of Flight 111
• Official report of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada on Swiss Air Flight 111
• Pre-crash photo of HB-IWF
• CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corperation)Investigation into Swissair Flight 111
• Blessed Stranger: After Flight 111 at the Internet Movie Database
• Photographs of the Swissair Flight 111 Memorial at Bayswater, Nova Scotia
• Photographs of the Swissair Flight 111 Memorial at Whalesback, Nova Scotia
• Transcript of SWR-111's radio communications
• Imaging Takes on the Swissair Disaster